Revealed: Who else was at that secret Obama briefing with Olby and Maddow?

posted at 5:05 pm on October 21, 2009 by Allahpundit

Tantalizing but frustrating, as it’s only a partial list; without the full attendance sheet, it’s impossible to say definitively that the most transparent administration evah was playing only to its cheerleaders. Even so, while Gloria Borger isn’t particularly ideological as far as I know, there’s little question where Robinson, Dowd, and especially Ifill stand.

On Monday, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow were among several people who attended an off-the-record briefing with Pres. Obama at the White House. Sources tell us other attendees at the two-and-a-half hour chat included Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, Gwen Ifill of PBS and Gloria Borger of CNN. Perhaps not surprisingly, no one from Fox News was in the room.

Two and a half hours. Remember, Olbermann complained three years ago when Bush dared waste 90 minutes of taxpayer money chatting up his own ideological allies in the Oval Office. As for Fox News being conspicuously omitted from the guest list, I e-mailed Jake Tapper to see if he’d gotten an invite despite his willingness to pursue stories broken by Fox. Turns out he wasn’t included in the briefing either. Fancy that.

Needless to say, The One’s entitled to talk to whomever he wants, but playing pattycake with MSNBC’s primetime stars does further raise the question of why Beck and Hannity are problematic “opinion” shows while Olbermann and Maddow aren’t. And yes, that question is entirely rhetorical. New insight from Politico on the White House’s seek and destroy quarantine approach to its political opponents:

All of the techniques are harnessed to a larger purpose: to marginalize not only the individual person or organization but also some of the most important policy and publicity allies of the national Republican Party.

Dunn said that in August, as the president’s aides planned for the fall, they made “a fundamental decision that we needed to be more aggressive in both protecting our position and in delineating our differences with those who were attacking us.”

“It was a time for us to look at the extraordinary success we’ve had in terms of legislation but also to look at where we needed to be more aggressive in defining what the choices are, and in protecting and pushing forward our agenda,” she said.

The campaign underscores how deeply political the Obama White House is in its daily operations — with a strong focus on redrawing the electoral map and discrediting the personalities and ideas that have powered the conservative movement over the past 20 years…

“Fighting with a bunch of different institutions turns him into a typical politician and makes people cynical that anyone’s really going to change Washington,” Black said. “A big part of his ‘hope and change’ message was: ‘We’re gong to talk to everyone.’ He might have had great intentions, but human nature and politics don’t change much.”

His nonsense on the trail about bringing a new, “post-partisan” tone to D.C. was my second-favorite soundbite from the campaign last year, right behind how Afghanistan was the “necessary war.” I’ll leave you with this clip from last night’s Leno, which is as gentle and genial as anything on that show but does illustrate how ridiculous The One’s vendetta against Fox might be starting to look to middle America. Exit question: If the White House is capable of e-mailing MSNBC anchors while they’re on the air to correct factual errors, why can’t Anita Dunn pick up the red phone and call Glenn Beck?

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

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At the same time they’re out there blasting what they call a “point of view” cable network they’re giving cookies and tea to a fraud like Olbermann and a network like MSNBC.

It’s called chuztpah.

Someone needs to ask Gibbs whether the President thinks that Olbermann’s labeling of Republicans as “terrorists” and Bush as a “fascist murderer” is the type of civil discourse Obama is calling for. If Republicans have to denounce Limbaugh why doesn’t Obama need to denounce Olbermann?

This is exactly the kind of comedy, funny and not vitriolic, that has a chance of inviting Right of center viewers and salvaging the Tonight Show and, by extension I guess, NBC entertainment. The question remains whether or not the NBC powers that be (who have invested so much in Obama and a Democrat Congress) can allow Leno to undermine The Precedent and make a very thin-skinned man look ridiculous. Magic 8-ball says, “No.”

Still, funny clip about the remarkably unfunny president – at least according to the vast majority of contemporary comics who still fancy themselves as “edgy.” But I digress.

Yah, technically true, but missing the larger point. Bush did host conservative pundits prior to the 2004 election, and was given an earful by Krauthammer, Ingraham, et al. Rush didn’t attend the meeting, if memory serves right.

It’s disturbing and revealing that the Obama White House pulls in two of the left’s most dishonest fringe cranks for a war chat. Maybe I’m belaboring the obvious but the fact they would even let those two psychotics in the door shows just how extreme and insane this administration is.

Bush had plenty of closed-door meetings with conservative pundits and talk show hosts.

Plenty?

IIRC, about 3 (that I can recall reading about). Perhaps he had others that weren’t reported.

The point of this is that the same White House that complains about POV news organizations is inviting “journalists” from a very POV new organization (MSNBC) to off-the-record meetings with the President.

If POV journalism is so bad, why invite two prominent POV journalists?

They’re not really shocked! shocked! about POV journalism. They just don’t POV that make them look bad.

Look, I’m not Lexis Nexis, but they did happen under the Bush administration. Here’s another example:

In this final season for the Bush presidency, the battle for legacy is being waged on several fronts — including in the Oval Office itself. When Bush invited a group of conservative scholars and writers for an off-the-record, 90-minute talk at the end of June, he found himself under fire for supposedly abandoning principle in the pursuit of posterity.

Is the president driven by paranoia? It’s kind of creepy, this obsession he has with himself.

“post-partisan” tone to D.C. was my second-favorite soundbite from the campaign last year, right behind how Afghanistan was the “necessary war.”

Mine too. I distinctly remember that as an eye roller if ever there was one. Now, not surprisingly, he appears to be the most divisive president, well, ever! Maybe he told these clowns he invited to the WH to grab a mop and help him develop a strategy for Afghanistan. Or the economy.

It would be an excellent idea for him to meet with scholars. As long as he didn’t tell them to bring a mop. Seriously though, he gets more childish as every week goes by and his poll numbers show that people are really tiring of it. A lot of people are downright appalled and scared by his ineptitude.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!
The Annointed One blames Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reiley and Fox News for his gray hair outbreak, his high blood pressure and his rampant outbreak of hemmohroids.
He then reveals how Anita Dunn’s soothing words toward Chairman Mao and her ‘snake-like’ tonguelashing has soothed the latter-most affliction caused by the “transgressors”

Beck is, in his own words, a rodeo clown. Yet the WH takes him seriously as some kind of threat. Pathetic. What next, call out Letterman? A stand up comedian? In contrast…Michelle Malkin gets called a piece of meat with lipstick and takes it like water off a duck’s back and gives a snappy comeback to boot! Good grief, she has more spine than our elected leader.

AnninCA, you failed to mention he is also a hatemonger, racist and right-wing homophobe. And oh yeah, global warming denier!
You better keep up to speed gal or Obama might take back his lib-in-good-standing diploma.